Pages

Search fooditerranean

Sunday, November 20, 2011

A traditional beekeeper's story

At the time, in the
early 20th century, every household had to produce what it consumed so that it
could be completely self-sufficient. Sugar was unknown to households and honey
was a rare treat and the base of every sweet concoction, as well as being used
for its high nutritional value. Given its value as a commodity, anyone who
produced honey was considered privileged.

My grandfather Vassilis Paouris also produced honey, in his turn. He also
survived two world wars - all six of his brothers were
killed in the second -and an occupation. These events took their inevitable
toll on his honey production. Meanwhile, he was a proud and strong man, who
scorned the rapid developments that were taking place in the field and which
were changing the landscape of beekeeping worldwide. When he saw the ease with
which one young and inexperienced beekeeper extracted the honey from his hives,
in just a few hours when it would have taken my grandfather days, he understood
that developments had passed him by.

The baton was then passed onto my father, Giorgos Paouris. He is among the
first beekeepers on the island who modernized his apiary with European-type
hives and adopted new, cutting-edge techniques and methods, paving the way for
others. Over the course of many years, first with his brother and then alone,
he made an invaluable contribution to the evolution of the art of beekeeping on
the island. Standing by his side ever since we were children, my brother and I
helped and learned some of the steps of the process along the way. I am the next link in this chain. Through all
the hard work that toughened us up but also made us despair when we were small,
a love for beekeeping began to take root. Hands-on knowledge, of course, is not
always enough, so I sought the right theoretical background by attending
relevant seminars. But, evolution never stops, and neither does the quest for
knowledge.